Saudi telcos make convergence push

As the mobile market heats up, Saudi operators are looking to convergence in search of a competitive edge, reports TMCnet.

Pyramid Research states in its report the two biggest Saudi operators - STC and Mobily - have networks and licences permitting them to offer both fixed and mobile services and are looking to convergence, both as a cost-saving mechanism and as a way to gain a competitive edge.

Hussam Barhoush, senior analyst at Pyramid, says: "Pyramid expects the market to grow from $11.3 billion in 2009 to $14.3 billion in 2015, fuelled mostly by growth in mobile data as all three operators have (unveiled) 3G services.”

Sprint Nextel will spend as much as $5 billion to upgrade its network over the next three to five years, states TeleGeography.

The project, dubbed 'Network Vision' is expected to consolidate multiple network technologies into one seamless network, channelling the carrier's various bands of spectrum into a single compatible type of base station.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse says: 'Improving the customer experience - business and consumer - is the motivating force behind these network improvements.”

AltiGen Communications has introduced its contact centre and unified mobile convergence solutions, says Trading Markets.com.

Jerry Fleming, president and CEO of AltiGen Communications, says: "Our strategy of delivering all software solutions natively integrated to Lync Server enables organisations to deploy a complete unified communications solution across their the entire enterprise.”

Microsoft Lync Server provides a single solution that unites voice, instant messaging, audio, video, and Web conferencing.